Pluck Synth Node

The Pluck Synth Node creates realistic, configurable, plucked string-like sounds, such as guitar picks. The Node’s icon on the Patcher changes slightly, following the characteristics of the generated sound based on your settings.

Note: this Node is experimental, and may change before its stable release.


How to Use

The Pluck Synth Node, like many other audio sources synthesizing melodic notes, can work either on its own (default), or by being controlled by a connected melody source.

The melody source can come from anywhere, such as a Piano Roll Node, or a MIDI Keyboard Node.

In either case, the Pluck Synth Node outputs the synthesized audio results through its audio output. Connect this audio output to an Audio Destination Node to listen to the results. Add any audio effect Nodes in between to apply audio effects.


Inputs

Melody Input

A melody source to control the Node. Each note in the source melody is played as an independent sound, with unlimited polyphony.

Set the Mode setting to Melody controlled to enable this input.


Settings

Mode
  • Frequency controlled: the Node plays a single note specified by the Frequency setting
  • Melody controlled: the Node plays a single note for each note in the melody connected to the Melody Input
Frequency

Frequency controlled mode only

The fundamental frequency of the synthesized note.

Feedback

The sound’s fadeout duration. Increase to get longer sounds, decrease to get shorter sounds.

Mute

Controls how “muted” or “dampened” the synthesized sound is. A higher value is similar to playing a guitar with palm mute, while a lower value results in a cleaner (and longer) sound.

Accent

How strong or accented the initial pluck sound is. A higher value sounds like a hard string pick, with a harsher sound, while a lower value sounds like a soft string pick, with a softer result.

The effect of this setting is most striking with a low ADSR attack setting, especially 0. Longer attack phases dampen most of this setting’s effect.

Shape

Controls the seed for an underlying noise generator, causing different values to result in slightly different sounds. See the technical details section for more info on this.


Outputs

Audio Output

A mono audio signal containing synthesized pluck sounds.


Technical Details

The Pluck Synth Node is based on the Karplus-Strong string synthesis, where a short burst of white noise is fed into a resonator (a short feedback loop).

The Frequency setting, as well as the frequency of each note in Melody controlled mode, controls the frequency of this resonator. The Accent and Shape settings control the initial white noise, while the Mute and Feedback control the feedback in the feedback loop.


Limitations & Known Issues

The Pluck Synth Node always plays notes as if they were played from their beginning, except for the ADSR part.

That is, imagine you have a note on the Timeline beginning at the 4th beat, and ending at the 6th beat. If you start playback from the 5th beat, the Pluck Synth Node will make the same base sound as if you started playing from the 4th beat.

The only difference is ADSR processing. ADSR will only sustain for 1 beat, instead of 2, also also start with a 1 beat offset.

Note that this behavior is an unintended side-effect of how the Pluck Synth Node works under the hood, and may change in the future. Don’t rely on it too much.


Similar Nodes

  • The Oscillator Node, with a very short ADSR attack (even 0), and little to no sustain can produce similar plucked sounds to the Pluck Synth Node, especially with the sawtooth wave option.